Is there hope for patients with respiratory failure? The answer may be found with Inspira Technologies (NASDAQ:IINN) that is developing an augmented external lung. The ART 500 elevates and stabilizes oxygen saturation levels in 60 seconds while the patient is awake and breathing spontaneously, preventing the need for mechanical ventilation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only further exposed the medical and economic weaknesses of invasive mechanical ventilation and has underlined the need to bring new technologies to the market and as soon as possible.
Every year 20 million people worldwide are admitted to ICUs due to respiratory failure and eventually require mechanical ventilation. Increased cases of respiratory emergencies and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are the major factors augmenting mechanical ventilation. The COVID-19 pandemic only increased this number.
The threat of traumatic intubation and being in a medically induced coma and placed on a mechanical ventilator for an unknown period of time increases stress for patients already in life-threatening situations.
Mechanical ventilation exposes patients to considerable risks and iatrogenic complications. The most common are: Infections brought on by bacteria in tubes entering the lung and causing pneumonia, collapsed lung (pneumothorax) occurs where a part of the lung that is weak can become too full of air and start to leak, and lung damage caused by the pressure of putting air into the lungs with a ventilator.
Furthermore, patients surviving mechanical ventilation must undergo the ordeal of a lengthy and challenging weaning process to be taken off the machine. In fact, for every day that a patient is mechanically ventilated, an additional day of weaning in the ICU is required.
Inspira-Technologies, founded in early 2018, strives to introduce a new treatment that will revolutionize acute respiratory care, meeting the substantial and unmet need of providing acute respiratory treatment in a much safer and easier method.
Inspira’s proprietary Augmented Respiration Technology (ART) utilizes extracorporeal direct blood oxygenation to rapidly elevate and stabilize declining oxygen saturation at an early stage of the medical emergency in 60 seconds
The technology is a sub-dynamic oxygenation method based on a low flow approach that actuates the blood flow to bond high oxygen concentrations to the blood and effectively removes CO2 (1 liter of blood per minute is withdrawn and circulated back to the patient. The ART system also includes innovative developments that lower the risks of bleeding, hemolysis & thrombosis.
As Inspira targets new heights in respiratory care, the company stratgeically appointed Professor Benad Goldwaser as chairman of the board. Prof. Goldwasser has over 10 successful exits to his name. Inspira has also established a broad professional Medical Advisory Board as part of the clinical adoption strategy plan.
“We expect that the ART device will be a game-changer in the management of respiratory failure. If you think about it, it’s absurd to treat a patient with mechanical ventilation that overburdens an already unhealthy lung. Instead, we offer a new treatment paradigm that is less invasive and less traumatic for patients and their caregivers”,” said Dagi Ben-Noon Inspira’s CEO and Co-Founder.
“The potential for Inspira’s respiratory technology to disrupt a multi-billion-dollar market is dependent on having an in-depth understanding of the unmet medical need and growing market. We continue to invest substantially to improve our product offering and progress through key milestones on a pathway to a rapid and flexible market penetration strategy,” said Joe Hayon, Inspira’s Co-Founder, President, and CFO.
